Early death linked to type 2 diagnosis before 40

A link has been found between developing type 2 diabetes before the age of 40 and early mortality.

A study of more than 2.7 million people with type 2 diabetes showed those who were diagnosed before they turned 40 were 2.5 times more likely to die early, when compared to those who developed the condition aged 60 or older.

Dr Bob Young, the clinical lead for the National Diabetes Audit (NDA) and who led the research, said: “These important results add to the weight of evidence that type 2 diabetes in people of working age carries the greatest health burden, and is an especially severe condition in this age group.”

The findings, generated from seven years of data from the NDA, also found that people from a South Asian background are five times more likely to be diagnosed with type 2 before.